Fighters Only

Issue 025

May 2007

Cage Rage Contenders 4

Hammersmith Palais, London

3^rd March 2007

Written by Jim Page

Known for putting on nights full of uncompromising slugfests, the Cage Rage Contenders show returned to the Hammersmith Palais for another night of action that kept the crowd roaring all night long.

In the main event Sol Gilbert put on a terrific display as he dominated each minute of the fight en route to a third round stoppage win over Darren Guisha. Giving his opponent a nasty shock early on, Sol shot in and slammed Darren hard to the mat, before resuming his stand up game and battering his bewildered opponent all over the cage with crisp boxing and vicious right low kicks.

Darren came back with some decent enough shots of his own, but Sol was clearly the boss and finished the fight with a stream of nasty punches to the head of his grounded opponent.

Fight of the night had to be the bruising encounter between Lloyd Clarkson and Dan Movahedi, which had the crowd on its feet from start to finish. Dan was in total control in the opening minutes, smashing Lloyd with hard punches, knees and low kicks. Amazingly, Lloyd soaked up the beating, biding his time to eventually land a terrific left hook – completely against the run of the fight - putting Dan out for the count and sealing an incredible upset victory.

Highlights also included the back and forth barnstormer between the unbelievably aggressive-looking Joe Mac and Marvin Arnold-Bleu, which ended in a heart-breaking stoppage in favour of Joe as Marvin had no choice but to absorb the punishment and cover up on the floor. Iin the penultimate fight, the Gorilla Academy’s Tom ‘Kong’ Watson made up for his submission loss to Daijiro Matsui by taking down and pounding the game London Thaifighter Dorian O’Malley in three minutes of ground-and-pound abuse.

Results

Jeff Hayes def Jamie Spooner via TKO

Luke Smith def Jack Miles via TKO 0:40 Rd1

Lloyd Clarkson def Dan Movahedi via TKO Rd1

Jeff Lawson def Mark Dayrell via Submission (Armbar) Rd1

Joe Mac def Marvin Arnold Bleau via TKO Rd1

Steven Elliott def Deano Durant via TKO

Afnan Saheed def Alex Paulskorsaks via Submission (Achilles Lock)

Michael Pastou def Jake Bostwick via TKO 4:40 Rd1

Tom Watson def Dorian O'Malley via TKO Rd1

Sol Gilbert def Darren Guisha via TKO Rd3

FX-3

Reading Rivermead Centre, 10^th March 2007, Report by.Symon Jenner, pics by Robert Swann

A dominant performance saw Paul Daley make light work of Daniel Weichel in a FX3 world title defence. Weichel stayed on the inside and nearly secured a takedown, but Daley was more than capable of stuffing everything thrown at him. Tagged a couple of times Weichel looked to land a couple of his own on the feet, but with no success. A lethal combination and a knee from Daley flattened the game German. With Weichel slumped on the canvas a vigorous celebration from Daley showed what it meant to him to retain his title.

Undefeated Alex Owen has his doubters, but why? Frederic Fernandez is a tough fighter with appearances in GCM Dog and Cagewarriors. Expecting a three round war we saw a shut out by Owen. Owen frustrated Fernandez and latched on a triangle in the second round. The clash between ‘One Punch’ and Owen on Cage Rage 21 is a must watch.

Andre Winner and Wes Felix provided the most technical exchange of the evening entertaining the crowd with a back and forth brawl. Felix matched good boxing from Winner with solid takedowns. Strong clinch work ground out a mature victory for Winner scoring a split decision.

Local favourite Nigel Whitear took on a lively Jason Barrett. Stronger on the feet Barrett and Whitear exchanged. On the floor one armbar wasn’t enough, it was the second that was to be fatal for Barrett, as a tap couldn’t save him from a suspected dislocated arm. Is there a rubber match on the cards?

Results

Paul Reed def Rob Nisham via TKO 1:31 Rd1

Azran Quasid def Dion Oakes via TKO Rd1

Brendan Flannigan def Steve Baggaley via TKO Rd2

Lawson Tennant def Ben Vickers via TKO Rd 2

Przemyslaw Mysiala def Lance King via KO Rd1

Nigel Whitear def Jason Barrett via Submission (Armbar) Rd1

Andre Winner def Wesley Felix via Decision

Alex Owen def Frederic Fernandez via Submission (Triangle Choke) R2

Paul Daley def Daniel Weichel via KO Rd1

Ultimate Warrior Challenge.3

24^th February 2007, Report and pics by Jim Page

Everyone loves a tournament, but no-one more than Fabricio Nascimento. He went through to the finals of the European Vale Tudo Grand Prix in late 2005, but did the business here. Starting fast, he smashed Germany’s Peter Angerer to the floor with a hard right hand before laying down some brutal punches and finishing him with a kimura in under a minute.

The final was no less troublesome for the slick Brazilian as he took apart and submitted the Dublin-based boxer-turned-mixed martial artist Adrian Degorski. Adrian had showed no lack of ground skill in his arm-triangle submission win over Ludovic Perriera in the first round, but found himself in a tight spot going up against a submissions expert in the final. Nascimento showed an unbelievable level of skill as he took hold of the arm for another stunning kimura submission in just over a minute.

In the night’s final fight, local man Valentino Petrescu handled Nerijus Silkinas and made him pay for his early aggression, submitting him with a rear naked choke in less than two minutes. Nerijus came to fight but soon slipped after a spinning back kick attempt, leading Valentino to score with a brutal kick to the body. From there on, it was all Valentino as he secured rear mount and worked for the submission.

The undercard was littered with entertaining fights, of which only one lasted beyond a round. Daniel Buzzorta was impressive in his win and it was another day in the office for Cage Warriors featherweight champ Danny Batten, who scored a quick armbar submission over Nayeb Hezam.

Results

Adrian Degorski def Ludovic Perreira via Submission (Triangle Choke) 2:13 Rd1

Fabricio Nascimento def Peter Angerer via Submission (Kimura) 0:37 Rd1

Dan Burzotta def Nikolajas Silkinas via TKO 1:01 Rd1

Daniel George def Denas Banevicius via Submission (Kimura) 1:30 Rd1

Simeon Thoresen def Clifford Hall via Submission (Triangle Choke) 2:16 Rd1

Samir Medjdeur def Lee Wieczorek via Submission (Triangle Choke) 4:20 Rd1

Jason Kubiak def Tam Khan via TKO 1:12 Rd1

John Hales def Tommy McGuire via TKO 0:37 Rd1

Danny Batten def Nayeb Ezam via Submission (Armbar) 2:51 Rd1

Stav Economu def Kevin Simms via TKO 2:51 Rd1

Fabricio Nascimento def Adrian.Degorski via Submission (Kimura) 1:19 Rd1

Ivan Serati def Keith Dace via TKO 0:53 Rd1

Valentino Petrescu def Nerijus Kolnaus via Submission (Rear Naked Choke) 1:38 Rd1

Total Combat 19

Rainton Meadows Arena, February 24, 2007

Total Combat 19 at the Rainton Meadows Arena was a clear-cut sign of the growth of MMA in the North East. With a packed venue and a solid line up of talent, the night was a success with excellent fights only marred by some poor decisions from the officials.

The Total Combat event is going from strength to strength with a great venue and an entertaining pool of fighters, although greater care needs to be shown with regards to the best interest of the fighters. A four-man tournament was won by the strong and aggressive Kevin Thompson (who powered his way to victory) saw his first round victory promote a worrying scenario. Lightweight Dave Metcalf was matched against Thompson at short notice due to the original named fighter dropping out at last minute. No matter how brave or skilled, Metcalf could not compete with the strength of the heavier fighter and took a bit of a beating.

The top of the bill fight was a major upset after fan favourite Robert ‘Buzz’ Berry made the decision to step in at short notice to replace another local hero, Colin Sexton, who unfortunately had his return to competitive MMA hampered by a couple of broken ribs. ‘Buzz’ was to face the tough Irishman, Colin ‘Big C’ Robinson, who has impressed many people of late with his durable fighting technique. This durability was again to succeed after holding off a dominating ‘Berry’ for most of the first round, scored a knockout blow prior to the end after to two fighters stood toe to toe trading

heavy shots.

Results

Kevin Thompson def David Metcalf via TKO 2:27 Rd1

Ian Rush def Dave Radford via Submission (Choke) 0:27 Rd1

Kevin McAlonan def Dave Elliot via TKO 0:31 Rd1

Neil Wain def Rhys Iles via TKO 0:44 Rd1

Steven Lynch def Lewis Barrow via TKO 3:42 Rd1

Kevin Thompson def Ian Rush via TKO 1:15 Rd1

Colin Robinson def Robert Berry via TKO 3:18 Rd1

10K Grappling Challenge

Hackney Empire Theatre, London, 11th March 2007, Report by Jon Faulkner-Shotter, pics by Robert Curtis

The Hackney Empire theatre in London’s East End played host to the 10K Ground Challenge and some of the world’s best submission grapplers. Joe Long, promoter of the famous 10K Karate Clash, put on a tournament in conjunction with Paul Alderson of SENI / Fighters Inc and Jude Samuels of the European Fight Network, inviting 32 top grapplers to compete for a cool £10,000.

Competitors included world champions in BJJ, submission wrestling and MMA. The favourites coming into the tournament were Jeff ‘The Snowman’ Monson, UFC veteran and a 2-time ADCC world champion, and Braulio Estima, a BJJ world champion.

After 30 exciting group matches only the favourites remained with Monson facing off Estima in the final. Estima showed why he is one of the world’s top grapplers, dispatching his opponents by triangle-choke in his first match, an armbar in his second, a choke in the group final and another armbar in his semi-final. Jeff had submitted two opponents but had gone the distance in his other bouts.

Monson’s methodical game plan saw him stifle the ambitions of the grappler from Recife, Brazil. Estima’s initial attempt to pull guard and work for submission saw him go 1-0 down and Monson was able to capitalize on this with a big throw shortly afterwards to go 3-0 up. Braulio frantically looked for openings to submissions but Jeff was able to control him from the top position and almost passed Braulio’s guard on three or four occasions.